Ancient Egypt

Ancient Egypt was the preeminent civilization in North Africa, the Mediterranean and Middle East for nearly 3,000 years, from 3100 BC to 332 BC.

The River Nile’s predictable flooding along with controlled irrigation systems allowed for flourishing agriculture (primarily wheat and barley) and large food surpluses, and subsequently, denser populations, and much social, cultural and economic development.

The Egyptians created some of the earliest writing systems, around 5,000 years ago, and used two forms of writing. Hieroglyphics (using images) was for sacred religious and royal writings and Hieratic/Demotic was for day-to-day contracts and such. Egyptians were also among the earliest to write about medicine, dentistry, navigation, literature, and even mathematics, tackling concepts of algebra, geometry, Pythagorean theorem, area of a circle, and volume of a pyramid. They put theory into practice through tool-making, quarrying, giant construction projects, irrigation systems, boats, practical medicine, board games (Senet, Mehen, etc.), sculpture, peace…